Wednesday, August 27
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Questions about the class and syllabus?
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Introduce our process-based approach to scientific writing
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Defining your writing project
IPHY 3700 Writing Process Map
Process Activity: Analyzing Your Writing Task
Carefully attend to the assignment instructions.
Make checklists and take notes on instructions
and guidelines that aren’t your “defaults.”
Seek clarification on ambiguous or missing
instructions and guidelines.
Seek feedback on your plans for applying
instructions and guidelines.
Carefully attend to the assignment instructions
"Instructions to Authors" Documents:
The American Physiological Society: Author Information and
Instructions
Conservation Biology
Instructions to IPHY 3700 Authors
Make checklists and take notes on instructions
and guidelines that aren’t your “defaults”
A helpful strategy is to extract from the written assignment
only those instructions that you don't normally follow. If, for
example, your instructions are to double-space your paper and
you always do that naturally, don't sweat the detail. But if your
word processor's default for line spacing is set at 1, make a
note to remind yourself to change the spacing when you sit
down to draft.
Sample Checklists and Note Forms
Seek Clarification and Feedback
on Your Understanding of the Writing Task
Dear Professor Amby Guious,
I'm planning to write my term paper on the effects of leadcontaminated river sediment on nervous system diseases in Canadian
geese. Reading over the assignment that you gave us, I'm not exactly
sure if I clearly understand the instruction to "illustrate the
relationship between the pollutant and a number of health outcomes in
the species." For that part of my paper I'm planning to discuss how
lead exposure can cause oxidative stress in the brain, which destroys
brain cells and leads to several nervous system disorders and diseases.
I'm interpreting your instruction to mean that we should write about
the causal relationships between the pollutant and the health
outcomes. Would you please let me know if my plan is on the right track
for the assignment?
Thank you,
Justine Pierce
Learn the Discourse Conventions
Communication
Form
Main Objectives and Structural Elements
Typical length (number of
double-spaced pages)
Research papers
Report on original research, either a single study or a series of
several related studies on a focused issue. Major sections are
organized by the IMRAD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and
Discussion) format.
Review papers
Summarize, synthesize, and critically evaluate the field of published 30-60
studies on a focused topic or research issue. Major sections are
devoted to discussing subtopics of the overall topic or to presenting
critical lines of evidence and reasoning.
Request approval and funding for research projects. Major sections Up to 50
are devoted to presenting the proposed research methods,
detailing the planned budget, and describing potential beneficial
outcomes of the study.
Systematically review previous studies on a focused research issue 10-25
by applying a special form of statistical analysis to their results.
Major sections are organized by the IMRAD format.
Research and grant proposals
Meta-analyses
Case studies
15-30
5-10
Books
Report on observations or experiments involving a single individual
who is suffering from a disease or disorder.
Describe new instruments, procedures, and analyses for
conducting research.
Review and critique articles that are in the same issue of the
journal. Usually structured in essay format. Journal editors invite
authors to contribute these pieces.
Authored by readers who comment on, review, and critique articles
in recent issues of a journal. When an article is negatively criticized
in a letter to the editor, the authors of the article are often given the
opportunity to write letters in response.
Present a broadly defined scientific topic in a full-length treatise.
Book reviews
Summarize and critique recently published scientific books.
1-2
Technical notes and methods
papers
Editorials and commentaries
Letters to the editor
5-10
2-4
1-2
Hundreds
Our Writing Assignment
What to write: The assignment is to write what we'll call a "discussion essay"
based on the methods and results of the hypothetical study reported in this
document. Note that you won't write the entire discussion section of a standard
research paper. Instead, you'll write selected parts of a discussion section,
adapting the content and structure to meet criteria that we'll discuss in upcoming
class meetings.
Paper length: The maximum length for the first draft and final paper is 1600
words (not counting the reference list). To have the potential for an excellent
grade, you must not exceed the maximum word count. You should, however, try
to get as close to the maximum limit as possible on both your first draft and final
paper.
Audiences: Your audiences are (1) upper-division integrative physiology majors
who are not in IPHY 3700 this semester and (2) me, your scientific writing
instructor. We'll devote class time to talking about how to develop and tailor your
paper's content, structure, and language through considering the needs,
expectations, and values of your readers.
Grading criteria: In many class meetings over the first half of the semester, I'll
talk extensively about the criteria by which I'll grade final papers.
Style, format, and paper submission guidelines: Guidelines for preparing
and submitting papers are in the handout, "Instructions to IPHY 3700 Authors."
You'll find a link to this handout in the "Everyday Stuff" menu on the course Web
site.